The present invention relates to a method of inclusion melting or remelting glass with radioactive components, especially from the reprocessing of nuclear fuel (burner) elements, and to a glass melting furnace for carrying out such a method.
It is known in the prior art to store radioactive waste materials in a liquid form within tanks made of stainless material, and to dissipate the heat of decay by cooling the liquid. However, it is disadvantageous in such methods that gaseous radioactive constituents may leak out, that the stainless or anti-corrosive material, as experience has taught, is corroded beyond all expectation; and that safe storage is therefore not possible, while entry of the highly radioactive liquid into the subsoil water would have catastrophic consequences.
In view of this, numerous proposals have been made to store radioactive waste materials and particularly the radioactive waste material from the reprocessing of nuclear fuel elements, in the form of a solid material after the sufficient dilution thereof. However, it has been found to be disadvantageous in such a method that the well-known solid materials, with the exception of glass, are subject to decay under the action of radioactive radiation and especially of the generated heat, such that safe storage cannot be ensured by this method either.
It is mainly the inclusion in glass that could not heretofore be effected in a technically practicable way, because of the great melting problems and the high temperatures that have to be controlled in such an operation, while the requisite safety of operation and the absence of exhaust gas cannot normally be secured. Too great a quantity of exhaust gas would result in release of radioactivity to the atmosphere, and too short an operational life or insufficient operational safety of the furnaces would impede the reliable removal of the radioactive waste materials.